The Great Pretenders: Why Looking Busy is Such a Problem

RE:

"Mary has had a problem with the performance of two of her employees."

"Mary’s conduct could be driven by a fear of confrontation."

There's a point at which "Mary" starts to look like an utter spineless jellyfish, at which point, more employees will begin to note that they, too, don't have to produce much (sales, reports, or whatever it is they were hired to produce). Next, Mary's department or work unit experiences a decline in overall productivity as motivated employees sense they are in the Loser department find other jobs or Mary's upper managers give her the boot for not being able to motivate employees to the desired end results.

Mary, too, is "pretending to work." She pretends to be a manager, when in reality, she merely holds a job title of authority that she does little with (possibly because she is afraid of confrontation).

Perhaps being a spineless jellyfish has set the tone for the goof-offs, who do not believe they need to respect their manager, because she does not respect herself to solve her employee problems.

Assertive managers have applicants galore to choose from these days. What are they waiting for while retaining the ones who refuse to complete tasks assigned to them? Start interviewing replacements already.

Two Cents of IL 5:23PM June 13, 2010